Klarinet Archive - Posting 000163.txt from 2009/04

From: "Dan Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Recommendation for Clarinet Duet
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:01:25 -0400

Martin, I've read much of the evidence, and which is in the volume of the
complete Mozart that contains the duets. An old friend, Marius Flothis, did
the edition as part of the Neue Mozart Ausgabe, from my point of view, the
evidence that he put forward was pretty strong. Flothuis was very a very
cautious musicologist.

I remember Joe Marx in NY doing an edition of them around 1965 and providing
a very thoughtful introduction establishing the pieces for horns. Even the
Koechel catalog (the new one at least) accepts them as being for horns,
despite the difficulty of playing them. There's also a recording of the
works with two very good hornists playing on valveless horn, and they were
very much in tune.

There was also a problem with the date presuming that they were for basset
horns, but I don't remember what it was.

And finally this. The character of the composition did not work for basset
horns, but appeared to me to work for French horns, though the only time I
hearted them live they were played on modern instrument.

But if you really think they are for basset horns, it might make a nice
article for the Clarinet journal.

Dan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Baxter" <martinbaxter@-----.net>
To: <klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 2:42 PM
Subject: Re: [kl] Recommendation for Clarinet Duet

> Dan,
> I have never been convinced that the K487 (or K496a) duets were for
> French Horns. I have heard arguments, with supplementary evidence, on
> both sides. Grove accepts the possibility that they were for bassethorns.
> They also tend to sound laboured on French horns and since the use of
> hand stopping to correct the out of tune harmonics was not general until
> Beethoven's time (according to Bate) I can't see that using waldhorner
> was Mozart's intention. Perhaps you can supply evidence.
> Martin
>
> On 29 Apr 2009, at 18:44, Dan Leeson wrote:
>
>> Re Martin's recommendation for clarinet duet:
>>
>> The Mozart basset horn duets he mentioned are not for basset horns.
>> They are for French horns. The can be played as duets for many
>> instruments, but they are supposed to be played by French horns.
>>
>> Dan Leeson
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Baxter"
>> <martinbaxter@-----.net>
>> To: <klarinet@-----.org>
>> Cc: "Martin Baxter" <martinbaxter@-----.net>
>> Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 7:51 AM
>> Subject: Re: [kl] Recommendation for Clarinet Duet
>>
>>
>>> "Poker" by Perluigi Alessandrini is also worth a look. I haven't
>>> played it myself but I heard a good student duo working on it and I
>>> thought it sounded interesting; after all the repertoire for this
>>> combination is limited. Is the concert to be purely clarinet duo?
>>> If so I hope you aren't ignoring the Mozart basset horn duets;
>>> technically they are easy but there is more musical subtlety than
>>> meets the eye. I wouldn't play them all but a pleasant Serenade/
>>> Divertimento can be produced by selecting 4 or 5 of them.
>>> Martin
>>>
>>> On 29 Apr 2009, at 14:53, Thiel, Mark wrote:
>>>
>>>> I haven't played it (it's on my list of stuff to buy) but Crosstalk
>>>> by Richard Rodney Bennett looks and sounds intriguing and I think
>>>> more audience-friendly than the Poulenc. You can kind of see the
>>>> score at
>>>> http://www.freehandmusic.com/productdetail.aspx?prodid=345096
>>>> There are some sound clips of this somewhere out on the web but I
>>>> can't find them now.
>>>>
>>>> Good luck and tell us what you find,
>>>> Mark Thiel
>>>>
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>> I am looking for a recommendation for a clarinet duet, either (2) Bb
>>>>> or (1) Bb and (1) A) for a chamber music concert, with the following
>>>>> guidelines:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> . . .
>>>>>
>>>>> Shannon McNeely
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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>
>
>
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